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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29830575">Oversleep</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/everylemon/pseuds/everylemon'>everylemon</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Final Fantasy XV</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV, Gen, Hurt Noctis Lucis Caelum, Magic, POV Prompto Argentum, Sleepy Noctis Lucis Caelum, but it's a problem, the Crystal is a blessing and a curse</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 21:02:19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,128</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29830575</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/everylemon/pseuds/everylemon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time it happens, after he’s injured at 8 years old, waking up takes Noct nearly three weeks and the assistance of Carbuncle.</p><p>Everyone assumes it’s a coma.</p><p>It doesn’t happen again until he’s 17 and the stars of his life are all misaligned.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Prompto Argentum &amp; Noctis Lucis Caelum</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>133</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Oversleep</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Just indulging my headcannon that a magic Crystal whose idea of handing over power is <em>having you nap for 10 years</em> probably has similarly great ideas at other times.</p><p>Follow me on <a href="https://every-lemon.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a> for <a href="https://every-lemon.tumblr.com/post/644511179036819456/the-prince-of-car-naps-fun-fact-noct-sleeps">gifs of Noct napping</a> or on <a href="https://twitter.com/everylemon1">Twitter</a> for who knows what, I don't get Twitter, but I'll follow you back and learn the dark arts.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first time it happens, after he’s injured at 8 years old, waking up takes Noct nearly three weeks and the assistance of Carbuncle.</p><p>Everyone assumes it’s a coma.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>It doesn’t happen again until he’s 17 and the stars of his life are all misaligned.</p><p>Gladio sees the way he practically limps into training, old injuries constricting in the unforgiving cold, eyes resigned to getting walloped. He takes mercy on Noct and substitutes stretching for sparring. He hopes it helps at least as much as it clearly hurts.</p><p>Ignis is himself drowning in everything they both have to do. He tries to summarize the reports, limit the late nights, and cut down the amount of back-and-forth on the well-worn triangle between school, apartment, and Citadel. There’s only so much he can do, though. They’re both exhausted.</p><p>Prompto stays at Noct’s apartment to cram late into the night for their last, and worst, exam before the winter break. Noct’s slumped forward to stare at the flashcards as if supporting his own head is too much effort. That's not too weird, but he’s also missing stupid-easy questions when they quiz each other back and forth.</p><p>They’re clearly both fried long before Prompto cries uncle and declares a break. That would normally mean video games. Today, it’s just sprawling out on the couch and anemically theorizing about whether, with the right prayers, Shiva could be convinced to send a freak storm and cause a snow day tomorrow.</p><p>Noct falls asleep. Obviously.</p><p>Prompto, who has never fallen asleep anywhere except a bed after at least half an hour of trying to get his brain to stop serving up new anxieties, does not. But he drifts for a while, until a bit after midnight.</p><p>“Noct,” he groans without detaching his face from the throw pillow, “don’t hate me but we still gotta go over that last chapter.”</p><p>Noct doesn’t stir, so Prompto kicks at his foot, then forces himself to sit up so he can lean over and flick Noct’s cheek a few times, and finally shakes his shoulders, but Noct is either really, really deeply asleep or else faking it with the commitment of a method actor. He doesn’t even hitch his breath when Prompto picks his hand up and lets it drop back onto his face. Or when Prompto snorts back laughter at that.</p><p>“Fine, have it your way, I’m going to finish.” Prompto shuffles over to the mess of textbooks and worksheets and notebooks on the dining table and forces himself to read over the last chapter until his furious blinking can’t stop the text from going fuzzy any longer.</p><p>By that point, it’s getting close to 2 a.m.</p><p>“Dude, at least move to the bed,” he says, stooping to shake Noct’s shoulder again. But his friend doesn’t stir. Maybe normally Prompto would take this opportunity to draw cat whiskers on him for a blackmail photo op, but tonight, he just tosses a blanket over him and zombie-walks to Noct’s bedroom to lay down face-first on top of the comforter and fall asleep in record time after quadruple-checking his phone alarm.</p><p>It goes off three and a half hours later, though Prompto could swear it’s only been five minutes. He’s so tired. His head is fuzz and his stomach is tied in nervous knots. He can’t remember the difference between an ionic and a covalent bond and should probably stare numbly at those notes for a while.</p><p>Noct is still sleeping. They’ve had enough sleepovers for Prompto to know that waking him up is a many-step process, so he kicks it off by yanking the blanket off Noct and turning on all the lights.</p><p>“Doomsday’s here, wakey wakey,” he sings. He grabs flash cards off the table to look at while he brushes his teeth.</p><p>When he’s done getting dressed, Noct still hasn’t moved. Honestly, the only thing weird about that is that he hasn’t rolled over to bury his face in the couch cushions or flung an arm over his eyes to block out the light. So Prompto thwacks him over the head with a notebook and says, “Noct, we’ve got an hour before Iggy gets here and I really need you to know what a polar molecule is.”</p><p>Nothing.</p><p>He shakes Noct again, and then turns the TV on to obnoxious pop tunes, and then finally puts his phone alarm on high, wincing as he holds it next to Noct’s ear — nothing, and honestly, it’s starting to weird him out.</p><p>So hauls Noct up to sitting.</p><p>When he does, he finally knows something is wrong.</p><p>It’s not like the other half-dozen times he’s harassed Noct up to get to school after a night of cramming (or to play video games on a Saturday morning when Prompto’s bored of single-player mode). His body is heavy. Completely limp. His head flops back alarmingly.</p><p>“Dude, you’re scaring me,” he pleads, settling Noct back down and shaking his shoulders. “Okay, okay, it’s gonna be okay, I’m calling Iggy so if you’re faking it’s definitely way past time to stop.”</p><p>Even though he’s beginning to feel hysteric with the certainty that something is wrong, he’s still half-expecting a cat-like swipe of Noct’s arm to knock the phone out of his hands before he can call, so he hesitates. </p><p>Nothing.</p><p>He calls.</p><p>Ignis answers on the first ring. “Prompto, what’s wrong?” </p><p>“<em>Noctwon’twakeup</em>.”</p><p>“Breathing?” Ignis snaps back immediately. He can hear shuffling, like Ignis immediately jumped up and got to work doing something.</p><p>“Yeah, he just seems like he’s sleeping but he’s not reacting to anything, and I tried, uh — I tried a lot of things.”</p><p>“Do you know how to do a sternum rub?”</p><p>Prompto blinks. Memories of health-class CPR flit through his mind. “With knuckles, right?”</p><p>“Yes. Hard. It’s supposed to be painful.”</p><p>Prompto wedges the phone between his shoulder and ear, unzips Noct’s hoodie halfway, and drags his knuckles firmly over the hard bone in the middle of Noct’s chest, wincing. But he's the only one who does. “Nothing. Didn’t flinch at all.”</p><p>He hears shuffling, typing. “Prompto, I need you to unlock the door and wait with Noct. Stay on the line until medics arrive, which should be within five minutes. I’ve approved you to ride along, if you are able.”</p><p>“Uhm, should I?”</p><p>“If he wakes up, it might help,” Ignis says. He’s silent a moment, then says, less confident: “And then you could stay on the line with me.”</p><p>It’s the only sign that Ignis is worried. But Ignis, bless him, keeps his head in a crisis. He keeps Prompto calm and talking — asking him to take a pulse, going over the night before — until the medics arrive.</p><p>They work quickly, checking Noct’s unconscious body over before loading him onto a wheeled stretcher.</p><p>They take the elevator, so Prompto thuds down the emergency exit stairs (<em>why so many stairs</em>) at record speed, flinging himself around the landings, and slips inside the ambulance just before they start loading Noct in. Which is good, because he’s able to answer a few questions on the way, after the medics seem satisfied Noct isn’t in immediate danger.</p><p>He’s still got Ignis on the other line, phone clutched in his hand; he hopes it’s enough that Ignis will be able to hear that no one’s yelling or panicking or anything. Hopes it helps a bit.</p><p>And it’s the weirdest emergency ever because Noct is just sleeping peacefully through it all. There’s no wailing siren or anything, either. It’s incongruously bright and sunny out as they ride through the early morning city streets.</p><p>Ignis is waiting in the parking garage when they pull up to a parking garage entrance marked EMERGENCIES ONLY in stenciled red letters. The adviser’s arms are crossed against the cold; he’s just in a button-down and sweater vest.</p><p>Prompto finally remembers to hang up. He jams the phone into his pocket as he dashes out so they can unload Noct without him in the way, then clambers down and hangs back by Ignis as they bring Noct inside. Ignis follows after, but no further than just within the door. He looks tired.</p><p>“Do you know what’s wrong?” he asks. Ignis is so calm. Maybe, he hopes, it’s just a regular Noct thing he just never knew about, like his friend’s ability to warp through chain-link fences, or the back spasms that he finally admitted this year were what kept him out of school occasionally.</p><p>But no dice. “I’m afraid not.”</p><p>“Oh.” He doesn’t know what to say. Or do. Noct’s in good hands now, but he’s stranded at the Citadel at 5:45 a.m. on a school morning. Ignis is just standing there, looking a little dazed.</p><p>After another minute, the adviser shakes himself. “Thank you for your help, Prompto.”</p><p>“No big.”</p><p>“Follow me,” he says, so Prompto does. As they walk, Ignis calls the school and Prompto is absurdly thankful that he mentions Prompto will be out, too. He’s in no condition to describe intermolecular structures.</p><p>They go up a dozen and a half floors in the elevator, high enough that Prompto’s ears pop and he has to swallow. Ignis leads him down a tiled hallway to his office while they wait to hear news about Noct.</p><p>He’s never been in Ignis’s office before, didn’t really know he <em>had </em>one, but it’s nice. It’s got a couch and everything. He stares at his phone or out the 18th-floor window while Ignis works at his desk, on his laptop, and neither of them say anything. But he can see Ignis jiggling his knee up and down in a nervous way that doesn’t fit with the unruffled Iggy he knows.</p><p>Ignis doesn’t ask if he wants to wait until they know something. He just assumes. Prompto appreciates that confidence.</p><p>After a while, there’s a knock at the door; a nervous-looking guy in a slightly-too-big-suit brings them coffee and pastries. Intern, Ignis explains after he goes.</p><p>It’s a while after that that Ignis’s phone vibrates, and he snatches it up immediately and steps outside to answer it. Prompto is both impressed and dismayed by the office’s soundproofing.</p><p>When he comes back in, Ignis looks even more tired. “Nothing appears to be wrong, other than the fact that he’s not waking up. They’re running tests. I can let you know when something changes, but I don’t know that there’s much reason for you to wait here.”</p><p>“Okay,” he says, though clearly everything is <em>not okay</em>. He can’t even invent what would be wrong to make someone just . . . not wake up. “Are you okay, Iggy?”</p><p>“Just fine,” Ignis says, adjusting his glasses. “Merely tired. I’ll call a driver to take you home.”</p><p>He opens his mouth to protest, but Ignis shoots him a long-suffering look and is already tapping something into his phone, so Prompto lets it go.</p><p>When he gets home after an awkward ride with a woman in a Crownsguard uniform who wasn’t interested in small talk, he flops into bed and sleeps for six hours straight, phone in hand.</p><p>Noct sleeps for three days.</p><p>A couple hours after Ignis texts him the news that the Prince is awake again, Prompto’s out on a run when his phone lights up with a stupid picture of Noct sleeping in class, which he is definitely changing immediately after this phone call. He slows to walk. “Noct?”</p><p>“Hey, sorry if I scared you. Dunno what happened, but I’m okay,” he says. And actually sounds . . . good. Not tired. Better than he has in a while.</p><p>“I mean, you definitely terrified me, but I got an extra day to study for the chem exam so thanks for taking one for the team.”</p><p>Noct huffs a laugh. “Pleased to serve.”</p><p>“They don’t have any ideas there?” Prompto presses, tucking the phone between his shoulder and ear so he can unlock his front door.</p><p>“Nah. I mean, they’ve run a lot of tests since I woke up, but everything looks fine.”</p><p>“You just mysteriously slept for three straight days?”</p><p>“Guess so,” he says. “Kind of wish they’d find something wrong so I knew why, at least.”</p><p>He wants to make a joke about Noct’s sleep habits, but instead he says: “Glad you’re okay.”</p><p>“Yeah, just freaked everyone out,” Noct says wryly, and Prompto can only imagine what it’s been like at the Citadel. There wasn’t anything in the news — which makes him doubt everything he thought he knew about free press — but mysterious ailments befalling the heir to the throne are probably cause for some level of panic. “I gotta go, they wanna run some more tests. But thanks again.”</p><p>“Sure thing, but please never again.”</p><p>“I’ll see what I can do.”</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p><br/>
It doesn’t happen again until Altissia.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>⬇️ i love when you say hi, i say hi back and we all feel a little less lonely as we make our way through life on this planet spinning around the sun</p></blockquote></div></div>
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